In the production of chemical pulp of high brightness, wood chips are first cooked to separate the cellulose fibers. Part of the lignin holding the fibers together is thus degraded and modified, such that it can be removed by subsequent washing. However, in order to obtain sufficient brightness, more lignin has to be removed, together with brightness-impairing (chromophoric) groups. This is frequently effected by delignification with oxygen, followed by bleaching in several stages.
For environmental reasons, it has become increasingly common to treat chemical pulp with chlorine-free bleaching agents already in the first bleaching steps. The big advantage is the drastic reduction in the discharges of chlorinated organic substances detrimental to the environment, owing to the combined effect of a smaller amount of chlorine-containing bleaching agents and lower content of lignin, which is the organic substance primarily reacting with the chlorine.
It is known to use chlorine-free bleaching agents, such as hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid or ozone, already in the prebleaching. However, the delignification and consumption of the bleaching agent become less effective than with chlorine-containing bleaching agents, unless the pulp is pretreated. Thus, a hydrogen peroxide treatment in an alkaline environment is disturbed by the presence in the pulp of ions of certain metals, such as Mn, Cu and Fe. These metal ions cause degradation of hydrogen peroxide, thereby reducing the efficiency of the peroxide treatment and increasing the consumption of peroxide. According to CA 1,206,704, this can be counteracted by pretreating the pulp with an acid, such as sulfuric acid or nitric acid, whereby the concentration of all types of metal ions is reduced. However, by this treatment also metal ions, for example Mg, which are advantageous to the peroxide treatment disappear, which ions stabilize the peroxide and increase the selectivity of the peroxide.
CA 575,636 discloses the addition of magnesium sulphate to stabilize alkaline peroxide solutions. However, the addition is made directly to the bleaching liquor and in an alkaline environment insoluble magnesium hydroxide precipitates. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,819 discloses the addition of magnesium ions to acidic peroxide solutions, but also in this case the addition is made directly to the bleaching liquor. None of the related methods makes possible diffusion of the magnesium ions into the pulp to such an extent that a pulp of high brightness and strength can be obtained.
The present invention relates to a process for delignification and bleaching of chemically digested lignocellulose-containing pulp. In a first embodiment, the pulp is acid treated at a pH of between about 1 and about 6, whereupon a water-soluble compound containing an alkaline earth metal is added at a pH of between about 1 and about 7 before the pulp is treated with a chlorine-free bleaching agent. The initial acidic treatment removes the trace metals of the pulp, whereas the subsequent addition of alkaline earth metal ions in aqueous solution returns the ions to the positions in the pulp where they have a particularly beneficial effect on the preservation of the cellulose chains and, consequently, on the viscosity, as well as on the consumption of bleaching agent in the subsequent bleaching step. In a second embodiment, the acid treatment step and the alkaline earth metal treatment steps are combined. The presence of the alkaline earth metal ions during the acid treatment results in a substantial portion of the original alkaline earth metal to be retained in the pulp.
After the treatment according to the invention, the pulp may be finally bleached to the desired brightness, suitably with a chlorine-free bleaching agent, such as ozone, to completely avoid formation and discharge of AOX. The final bleaching step is preferably carried out in the presence of an alkaline earth metal ion such as magnesium, calcium or barium.